A baby snail???

Question

I just finished cleaning my tank and I saw that my ONE snail that I bought 3 or 4 months ago was floating on the top. Then, when I looked at the bottem of the tank, there was a snail in there!! It is very very small. What happened?

Okay, I just checked my tank all over the place again and the little snail is GONE! Did it die, too?

Answer 1

Depending on the species of snail some are able to produce young without a mate. However it is really hard not to notice a egg sack in a tank if you have one.

Also baby snails are known to hide far up inside the shells of the mothers (or other snails) to keep safe. I purchased a blue mystery snail for my tank and did not know there was a baby hiding up in there until about three months later.

Chances are you had a lil one hiding and did not know it.

Answer 2

Did you ever buy plants to put into your tank? You may have picked up another (or a few) snails. You didn't say if the one you bought and the small one were the same type. Ore maybe the small one hitchhiked on the larger one, or in a bag with fish.

Some snails are able to reproduce by themselves, others aren't. And some need another snail, but can lay good eggs up to a few months after they've been with other snails.

I'll guess that the snail you bought was either an apple (mystery) snail or a ramshorn. Apples are one of the types that need a second snail. but can still lay fertile eggs for moths afterward. Ramshorns are self-fertile.

So the small snail COULD be either of these two. It could also be a Malaysian trumpet snail: http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug_S98.jpg or pond snail: http://www.bettatude.com/Snails/pond-snail1.jpg The pond snails aren't something you want in your tank - they can multiply like crazy! The Malaysians can also reproduce quickly, but I like having a few in my tanks - they burrow through the gravel and keep things stirred up as they look for food (and since they spend the day in the gravel, you usually won't notice you have them!). They only become a problem if there's too much food in the tank, so if you don't overfeed and clean the gravel with a siphon, they shouldn't be enough of them to be a problem.

Answer 3

Hi Kate, you have a baby snail!! Many snails are single sex & can reproduce even when you only have one individual to start with.

Answer 4

Some snails can self fertilize. Or perhaps it was already "pregnant" when you got it?

Answer 5

it had a baby.